A full 360-degree turn around?

Looks like rumour mill is in full swing with it being rumoured that both iconic brands transpeak and Skyline 199 will be returning to their original liveries and the refurbishment process has been brought to a halt after only one bus returning and another being sent!

Both transpeak and Skyline 199 are very popular routes serving the Peak District and until April 2012 were operated by Trent Barton. As part of the merger High Peak was made a 50/50 venture between Trent Barton and Centrebus seeing both companies sharing costs etc and a small percentage of vehicles transferring over. Before anything else, High Peak invested into improving the vehicle quality of the service with transpeak continuing to use tired excels (with the last branded excel leaving in December 2014) by using two Scania Omnicitys and two Scania Solars along with a later arrival of Scania Olympus which left after having it's roof ripped off in Stockport although was re-built and joined Centrebus Grantham.

The decision was announced in the latter half of 2014 that Centrebus will be "doing away" with the full branding for transpeak and Skyline 199 and instead the livery will consist of the standard Centrebus livery with transpeak and Skyline 199 vinyls being applied to their respective vehicles. When the news was announced there was a number of opinions formed with regards the change, a majority of those appeared to be negative stating that it "removes the brands identity" as both services retaining the same style of many years before.

The original livery for Transpeak - From Peak District Bus Enthusiasts

Despite the opinions of the enthusiasts the first two Enviro200s arrived at Dove Holes in the expected livery of the standard Centrebus livery with no vinyls or legal lettering with these to be applied before being entered into service. Then came the arrival of the final two which again came in the standard Centrebus livery.

A few weeks later the first enviro entered service on transpeak still in standard Centrebus livery...weeks after that all four enviros entered service still with the standard Centrebus livery and no transpeak vinyls! We were told that the reason for this was they were finalising the designs after there was some debate on the livery still at least transpeak had some lovely shiny new buses something not seen before on transpeak!

Line up for transpeak Enviros - From Peak District Bus Enthusiasts

Finally, the news was out that within the first week or so of January 2015 both transpeak and Skyline 199 will begin to have work done. There was a lot of speculation as to what the livery would look like with transpeak vinyls and again they were mainly negative thoughts. The time came and the first of the four enviros were having their stickers applied...this caused the 'Marmite reaction' where some people liked it and some people disliked - personally I liked it although has nothing on the original transpeak livery. All four of the eviros were admitted and returned quickly and entered service with their brand new livery.

Transpeak having vinyls applied - From Peak District Bus Enthusiasts - Taken by Mark Proud.

Next was Skyline 199 these took a bit longer as they were having  new paint-job and new seating applied although we were all expecting the handrails and flooring to be improved. Solar 693 was the first to go with enthusiasts eagerly awaiting the livery and level of refurbishment to the Solars. Just like the transpeak Enviros, 693 came back in standard Centrebus livery with vinyls being applied at a later date once 693 returned it was time to admit the next Solar this time being 690 which when the rumour that the refurbishment programme was coming to halt due to change of plans had already been having works done for a week or two. Days later 693 entered service on Skyline 199, perhaps with a few confused passengers.

693 having returned to Dove Holes - From Peak District Bus Enthusiasts - Taken by Mark Proud

With the sudden news that the refurbishment process has been halted with 690 being the last it does beg the question what will happen with 690 and 693? - Personally I can 697 and 698 going into Skyline livery with 690 and 693 becoming spares with them being the the appropriate livery.

With regards transpeak it's been said (rumoured) that come the end of the year the four current Transpeak Enviros will be moved elsewhere in Centrebus with four more brand new Enviros due end of the year in full transpeak livery.

 So all we can do now is wait the final decision and that hopefully rumour mill will begin to come to a stop soon so all our questions can be answered as there is a lot of speculation around this topic. As a fellow enthusiast and fan of the High Peak operations I hope that they make the decision to keep the 199 in red and transpeak in the two tone green keeping the brand's identity.

Thoughts?